Contents

Overview

LavishScript is a command shell and fully-featured scripting engine. Its goal is to be an easy to learn (very few syntactical rules, as few operators as possible, and so on) command-based language. It is object-oriented and strongly typed. It is designed to be embedded, and interfaces directly with native system data.

LavishScript is designed with the idea that most scripting languages munge too many extra rules and operators to do different things. We believe that simplicity is key. Not necessarily simplicity in the range of available functionality, but simplicity in the structure of the language itself. The complete syntax for commands is defined here. Script structure is also quite simple, and is defined here.

LavishScript is generally designed with non-programmers in mind (though logical thinking helps...). LavishScript isn't meant to be a replacement for other general-purpose languages, it is simply meant to be easy to use. If a "real" programming language is what you're looking for, maybe you should be using one instead of a scripting language, right? Most simple tasks can be completed with minimal research, but of course developing scripts will require some learning.

LavishScript allows any number of persistent scripts simultaneously, each of which are given a time slice per "pulse". Pulse timing is defined by the application (such as Fury or Inner Space), so each pulse may be defined as once per frame in a game (as in frames per second), or may simply be as soon as possible after the previous pulse, or can be distributed evenly at specific intervals. The priority level, dictating how much of a time slice is given per pulse, for a script may be set using the Turbo command.

Geek Notes

LavishScript has a pre-emptive scheduler to process scripts, and additionally supports atomic functions, which execute to completion without being scheduled. The scheduler runs scripts during explicitly stated times (such as when a game redraws its display)

LavishScript can access internal (e.g. script-defined variables and objects) and external data (e.g. game state information) via the same object system

References to objects exist only within explicitly defined data sequences, thus allowing external objects to be lost gracefully while a script is waiting for a timeslice (e.g. a character in a game may disappear before the next timeslice, and this will not cause synchronization problems)

Multiple-use expressions (such as data sequences to be evaluated each frame for display on a user interface) can be pre-parsed to improve performance

Internally, LavishScript uses C++ objects to perform the scripting duties. By design, every command takes the same form as a standard C console application (i.e. int main(int argc, char *argv[])), as does every built-in variable (called Top-Level Objects) to a lesser extent. This means that developing a LavishScript module is just as painless as developing a console app

Getting Started

We are reworking the documentation of LavishScript. In the meantime, the existing documentation is found under "Older information". It is still generally valid and correct information, just being re-done!